The Dragon Ball series is one of the most popular, long-running series in all of Japan and North America. Not only does the franchise have over 500 episodes of adventure at its disposal (and counting), but it’s been a staple of the genre ever since it debuted over 25 years ago.
It’s been fascinating to watch Dragon Ball evolve over the years. While there have been definite lulls, the series seems to always come back stronger than ever and the franchise has found new success in the ultra-popular Dragon Ball Super expansion.
Fans have loved to watch stronger villains come against Goku and his team throughout years. More episodes promise more brilliant battle scenes, as well as unbelievable transformations. These highlights keep Dragon Ball relevant, but that doesn’t mean that the series is always on fire.
In fact, a series that has been on as long as Dragon Ball will have plenty of off moments and skeletons in its closet. Accordingly, it is time to shine a light on some of the more questionable and ignored moments from the Dragon Ball franchise.
These are all of the weird, puzzling decisions that the show doesn’t want you to remember. Here are the 19 Things Dragon Ball Wants You To Completely Forget About.
Frieza’s Extended Family
There’s nothing really wrong with Frieza’s family. However, their existence brings in a lot of red flags and complications, which means that everything would make a lot more sense if they didn’t exist.
For the longest time, the series has acted as though Frieza is the strongest villain in the universe and as though he has the reputation to match. However, right after this is established the show throws his father, King Cold, into the mix. A vengeful brother named Cooler is even introduced, who dominates two films.
Frieza was an incredibly popular villain within the Dragon Ball series (they’re still bringing him back in Dragon Ball Super), so it's normal for the writers to want to add in some background and provide him with relatives.
That being said, this created a major plot hole: why wasn’t the rest of his family revered and feared? Shouldn’t the entire family be notorious, and not just Frieza?
Ultra Super Saiyan
Once the Dragon Ball series starts focusing solely on the next fancy transformation, they start to shoot themselves in the foot. It’s undeniable that the original Super Saiyan transformation is one of the series' all-time best moments, so of course the quest then becomes focused on finding a way to replicate that magic.
For a while, Dragon Ball Z was content with having all of its characters slowly become Super Saiyans, but then, naturally, things began to go further.
The Cell Saga ends with Gohan unlocking Super Saiyan 2, but something still needs to happen before then, so the show toys with the idea of an in-between stage-- Ultra Super Saiyan.
Ultra Super Saiyan is a bulky and ugly form that really doesn’t serve much of a purpose. It’s also pretty much forgotten once the characters are able to become Super Saiyan 2. In fact, the writers probably regret even creating Ultra Super Saiyan. Maybe Goku could have taught everyone the Kaio-Ken Attack instead.
The Rules Of The Dragon Balls
It’s funny that the titular item of the series would also be one of its most complicated and confusing elements. The Dragon Balls have a lot of strict rules, but the show is more than ready to ignore those restrictions when it results in raises the stakes and makes things more dramatic.
Furthermore, the series continuously needs to find ways around its own rules, which leads to the creation of new sets of Dragon Balls, which further complicate the series.
The Namekian Dragon Balls, the Super Dragon Balls, and even the Black Star Dragon Balls (if you count Dragon Ball GT) all provide different wish restrictions to cater to the many whims of the series.
After all of this work, though, wouldn’t it have been easier to have just had one set of Dragon Balls that can do it all?
Piccolo Destroys the Moon
First thing’s first: Piccolo’s not even the first one to blow up the moon in Dragon Ball, believe it or not. Master Roshi (as Jackie Chun) also blows it up as a Great Ape pre-caution during the 21st World Martial Arts Tournament.
However, they eventually wish for the moon to be restored, but then Piccolo has to go ahead and blow it all up all over again.
Piccolo’s reasoning behind destroying the moon is identical to Roshi’s, but the same amount of forethought doesn’t follow afterwards. There have been a lot of negligent wishes in Dragon Ball Z, but never does someone step up to restore the planet’s moon.
At this point, the show just hopes that the audience has forgotten about Piccolo’s crazy adventure of blowing up the moon with Gohan. The animators have even caved in and continued to draw the moon, without explanation on a few occasions, despite the fact that the moon should no longer exist.
Monster Carrot And The Rabbit Mob
Monster Carrot is certainly one of the more unusual villains from the Dragon Ball universe. Not only is this guy a huge talking rabbit, but he also has the ability to turn people into carrots with his touch.
That’s an extremely powerful ability for someone to posses, which is why Dragon Ball is happy to sweep this guy under the carpet. Buu sort of steals his whole “turning people into food” shtick down the road anyway.
Monster Carrot is one of the most entertaining foes that Goku faces in his earliest adventures. Furthermore, the ultimate fate of Boss Rabbit and his gang results in Goku leaving them stranded on the moon.
This more than likely means that these guys meet their untimely end when the moon later gets destroyed in the series. They just can’t catch a break.
Gohan’s Pet Dragon
Gohan’s pet dragon, Icarus, is a pretty cute companion for the character during his younger years. This is why it’s so confusing when Icarus all of a sudden disappears.
Icarus is a friendly purple dragon that appears in a handful of the earlier Dragon Ball Z movies and makes his final appearance in the last episode of the Trunks Saga. He seems like the perfect sort of creature that Gohan could share with Goten or even pass on to Pan.
Icarus makes a large impression during the Garlic Jr. Saga when he saves Gohan from becoming infected by the Black Water Mist. He also saves Maron’s life from an infected Bulma and Chi-Chi. In "The Tree of Might", he even attacks Shenron out of fear, which leads to one of the few occasions where Shenron actually tries to attack.
Krillin’s Girlfriend Maron
Maron only appeared for a brief time in Dragon Ball Z, so it’s quite easy to forget about Krillin's first love interest. It also doesn’t help that Maron basically looks identical to Bulma, so she doesn’t exactly stand out-- unless you’re Master Roshi, of course.
Maron first appears in the Garlic Jr. Saga and acts as collateral, providing Krillin with a reason to fight. At the end of the Saga, Krillin and her break up, despite the fact that Maron says that she would have married Krillin if he had asked.
Maron pops up once again during the attack of the androids, appearing at Kame House in search of Krillin. However, their break-up is likely for the best, as Krillin and Android 18 get to live happily ever after as a result. Let’s just hope that their daughter’s name-- Marron-- is merely a coincidence.
The Grand Kai
Dragon Ball has effectively erased Grand Kai from its universe. The character was supposed to preside over the four Kais, who worked beneath him, as well as all of the quadrants of the universe.
He is clearly an important character, but the series essentially replaces him with the introduction of the Supreme Kai, who serves the exact same job and looks a whole lot cooler than an aging Grateful Dead fan.
The Grand Kai holds the Other World Tournament to determine who the strongest fighter of the afterlife is, but he also enlists Goku and Pikkon’s help to put an end to Cell’s rebellion in Hell.
The ways in which Dragon Ball Super has recently incorporated many gods and Kais into the fold would make for the perfect way to bring Grand Kai back. However, his continuous absence seems to be proof that the show has moved on.
Piccolo Destroys Goku’s Space Pod
When Goku sets off for Planet Namek, his mode of transportation is a space pod that Dr. Brief customizes out of the space pod that Goku arrived to Earth in as a child. The only problem with this, though, is that the series previously showed Piccolo destroying the very same pod.
Piccolo gets caught up in same training hijinks with Gohan that leads to the young Saiyan turning into a Great Ape. When Piccolo discovers that Goku’s space pod projects an image of the moon into the sky, he blows up the spaceship in order to calm Gohan down.
Clearly the series was hoping that viewers would overlook this when Dr. Brief began his work. However, the scientist ended up creating so many spaceships from scratch that it would have made more sense for him to build an entirely new spaceship for Goku.
Launch
Launch stands out from the other female characters in the Dragon Ball universe, which is why it’s so unfortunate that the character disappears. However, she vanishes not because she dies, but because Akira Toriyama simply forgets about her.
In his defence, Dragon Ball does have a ballooning cast of characters who are easy to lose track of, but it’s hard to believe that a character with this much importance could just get swept under the carpet.
Launch is a strong presence throughout much of the original Dragon Ball, and her relationship with Tien seems to be the closest that he comes to having a romantic relationship.
Launch is has a magical ability-- she experiences a Jekyll/Hyde-like transformation whenever she sneezes. The blue-haired Launch is docile and friendly, but the blonde-haired version is a violent criminal. She’s also able to give most of Roshi’s students a run for their money in battle.
Saiyans' Tails
The tails of Saiyans are a pretty crucial component in both the original Dragon Ball and the first chunk of Dragon Ball Z. Goku’s ability to turn into a Great Ape is an extremely important part of the series, and Dragon Ball Z then pushes the mythology further. Goku's tail provided evidence that he was actually non-human.
As the Dragon Ball series continues, there are increasing reasons for the Saiyans to remove their tails. In fact, the franchise even makes the tails a direct deterrent, which prevent the Saiyans from obtaining the powerful Super Saiyan transformation.
Furthermore, when new Saiyans hit the scene in Dragon Ball Super, they don’t even have tails. Admittedly, Cabba, Caulifla, and Kale are from a different universe, but it’s an evident sign that the series is ready to move on.
In fact, they only re-appear in Dragon Ball GT’s Super Saiyan 4 transformation, and the less said on that, the better.
Master Roshi’s Rival, Master Shen
In the Dragon Ball universe, Master Roshi is one of the most prominent figures in the martial arts world. However, few people know that Roshi has a tragic rival who goes on to open up a competing school of martial arts.
It feels like the existence of this opposite school should be a bigger deal in the Dragon Ball series, but all signs of Master Shen and his Crane School dry up after the original Dragon Ball. Elements such as the Demon Containment Wave have returned to Dragon Ball, but Shen has pretty much become nonexistent.
Furthermore, both Tien and Chiaotzu were former students of Master Shen, and even though they’ve become close with Roshi, it seems like they would still want to carry on the teachings of the Crane School, where they originally began learning martial arts.
Plus, Master Shen is Mercenary Tao's big brother. This fact alone should give him enough credit to return to the series and get revenge.
Chi-Chi Used To Be A Fighter
Chi-Chi does such a good job at keeping Goku and the rest of her family on a short leash that it’s easy to forget that she was once a powerful warrior herself. However, Chi-Chi turns her back on fighting and begins to focus solely on her family as soon as Dragon Ball Z begins.
There’s nothing wrong this, but the series certainly seems extremely comfortable with forgetting all about Chi-Chi’s previous triumphs and accomplishments.
Chi-Chi might have never been at the same strength level as Goku, but she’s more than capable of holding her own throughout Dragon Ball. She takes down countless soldiers from the Red Ribbon Army and does an impressive job in the 23rd World Martial Arts Tournament.
Having a father named Ox King might have been a good motivator for her as a child. However, it's unfortunate that her skills as fighter were never brought up again.
Garlic Jr. Gains Immortality
Many villains in Dragon Ball-- Vegeta and Frieza included-- have been after the Dragon Balls for that high-hanging fruit of immortality. It seems like an impossible goal that will never be reached, but believe it or not, someone already has reached this goal and it was a weird troll who is named after a spice.
Garlic Jr., one of the earlier threats from Dragon Ball Z has actually managed to gain immortality. Of course, he suffers a very “monkey’s paw”-type fate where death would actually be a relief after he ends up in the torturous Dead Zone for eternity.
Even though Garlic Jr. gets disposed of relatively easily, Dragon Ball probably doesn’t want people remembering that there is someone immortal out there. So don’t expect this guy to make a killer comeback in Super.
If A Supreme Kai Dies, So Does Their Universe’s God Of Destruction
This is one of the more recent rules to come from out of Dragon Ball Super, and it honestly feels like something that’s going to come back to haunt them sooner rather than later.
The Universal Destruction Saga in Dragon Ball Super brings all twelve universes into play, as well as all of the gods and deities who come with them. When the rules of this tournament involve the removal of the losing universes, some rather pivotal information gets revealed.
Beerus reveals that, if a Supreme Kai dies, that universe’s corresponding God of Destruction will also die, and vice versa. That being said, the universe’s “Angel” won’t be affected and will live through this.
While this all seems like more fodder for the tournament’s rules, it feels like it’s a disaster waiting to happen. It’d be far too easy to assassinate Beerus by taking out Supreme Kai, for instance.
Frieza’s “Five Minute” Ultimatum
The battle between Goku and Frieza is one of the most exciting fights in all of Dragon Ball. That being said, one moment that makes a lot of the audience cringe is the “five minute” trump card that Frieza puts into play.
Frieza decides to blow up Namek, which results in Goku and Frieza only having five minutes left to finish their fight. Frieza reiterates the importance of this time limit, but it really doesn’t change anything. There are still almost a dozen episodes that take place after the “five minute” gambit. Frieza even gets to have an episode-long flashback after this.
The biggest question here is why the writers chose to go with five minutes in the first place? Frieza could have said that Namek only had an hour left and it still would have made for a climactic conclusion. An exploding planet is still an exploding planet, regardless of how much time remains-- especially if this time-limit is later ignored.
Dragon Ball GT
Originally, the premise of a follow-up series to Dragon Ball Z made a ton of sense and had unlimited potential. Of course audiences wanted to see more adventures revolving around Goku and his friends, especially since the end of Dragon Ball Z introduced so many young, new characters into the fray. Wouldn’t it be fun to see them all grow up? Well, apparently not.
Dragon Ball GT does a lot of things right and doesn’t deserve the marred reputation that it has, but many people treat it as if it’s Dragon Ball fan fiction. The main reason behind this is that there’s no manga for the series and Toriyama was only tangentially involved with it.
On top of that, the series is full of controversial decisions, such as the idea to turn Goku back into a child, making Shenron evil, and of course, Super Saiyan 4. Plus, who decided that Vegeta should cut his hair off and grow a mustache?
Power Levels In General
For a series that is largely about being the strongest warrior in the universe, it makes sense to have a hard qualifier of strength, such as power levels. The infancy of Dragon Ball Z pays a lot of attention to these numbers.
Energy readings like “over 9000” cause characters to go into tailspins and even the structural integrity of the planet goes into question. The last time that the series really gave a firm power level was when Frieza went into his final form, which apparently had a power level of one million. This reveal was huge, but then Goku went Super Saiyan and surpassed it.
So, if Super Saiyan is over one million, what are the power levels of the rest of the transformations? What is a God of Destruction’s power level? Power levels are a good idea, but the show started off too big, too soon. There’s literally nowhere to go now.
Dragon Ball Z’s Final Three Episodes
Dragon Ball Z disposes of its final threat, Majin Buu, with a few episodes left over to spare at the end. This isn’t unusual for Dragon Ball, as the series usually has some filler-centric fun after the bad guy is defeated. The final three episodes of Dragon Ball Z go particularly far, however, and even jump forward ten years in time.
Dragon Ball Z’s final episodes show a lot of characters grown up. This is meant to reflect the changing of the series and provide fans with a view of where the series will head.
These episodes also introduce their fair share of contradictions and problems, though. In fact, when Dragon Ball Super happens, it actually takes place after the Z-fighters defeat Majin Buu, but before the epilogue of Z. It leads to many problematic developments that it’s easier to just ignore the ending of Z.
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Are there any other things that Dragon Ball wants you to forget? Sound off in the comment section!